Restyling for Hunter Gatherer

Thursday, November 1, 2012

When I started sewing, and refashioning existing garments into new, I hadn't realised how many clothes I'd actually start to accumulate in my wardrobe.

It is easy to restyle a new piece of clothing, when given the opportunity to work with second hand garments. The cost is minimal, and relatively guilt free when working with unwanted fabric, particularly damaged textiles.

I've reached a point recently, where I've admitted that I own too many clothes, yet I'd still like to be creative, and continue to refashion old garments into funky new stuff.

"We are currently looking to build a creative team of dedicated
male and female volunteers with an interest in fashion. Experience is
essential in clothing alterations, hand sewing, machine sewing and
fabric or design skills. These skills are needed to perform repairs,
make clothing alterations and adjustments, as well as creating new items
from existing garments."

I arranged to meet with the Manager of the Hunter Gatherer store in St Kilda, we had a little chat, and came to an agreement. I'd take a bag of un-stylish second-hand clothes every few weeks, and work on refashioning them to make more sell-able, after which they are returned to the store, ready to put up for sale.

And there we have it, an answer to my dilemma.

I've made a start on a few items already. The first, is a skirt with a gorgeous Central American 'tribal' print, which sadly, sat in the store unsold. I've resized it, and added a press stud fastener to the top. A simple adjustment, makes the world of difference:

In progress:

Of course Her Royal Catness likes to get involved, but fear not if you are allergic to cats, I do rid refashions of cat hair prior to return!

The second item, is a blue and white button up floral top, which needed a more flattering fit:

In progress:

Look, no cat!

There are many more refashions to do, mainly including dresses, and shirts. I'll be documenting all of them in the coming weeks.

About Hunter Gatherer

"Every frock, blouse, handbag, skirt, coat, trouser, hat and shoe at
hunter gatherer is specially handpicked from the hundreds of thousands
of wardrobe items donated each year to the Brotherhood of St Laurence’s
21 community stores or “op shops” across Victoria." More here

7 comments:

This is fabulous. I don't know where there are places like that but it's still a great idea. I'm hoping to get into the redoing too. I am a large size and I think my refashioning will be more combining two garments to make a nice larger one. Should be fun.

Oh man! What fun...what a great opportunity. I constantly want to fiddle with stuff (Little Miss O permitting!) but yeah - there's a limit to the amount of clothes you need and the amount of space for my own wardrobe...Love it.

Really great opportunity! We have recently moved from Europe to Canada and I had so many clothes, it was amazing. So I kept it to minimum and now I promised my self for every new refashioned items, one old one goes out.

Erica, this is amazing. I wish I was creative/good at sewing to be able to do what you do. I must say I was devo the other week when all of our summer sale stock that went un-sold had to be binned (or sent in a 'rag bag' to china). I know it will still get used, but some of this stuff was golden, we couldn't understand why people didn't want good stuff for $1!! So perhaps refashioning it is the way to go.... Nice work woman! Kel xx

I love that refashioned skirt so much. :) I made a dress for my little girl last night from a vintage fabric I got at a rummage sale for 25cents. Gotta love it when you know how to sew even just the basics. :) I can't wait to show it off. :)